Introduction and aims of the atlas

Sustainable land use planning is an urgent need in Niger and Benin. It needs a sound data base with respect to natural resources as well as the economic environment. The "Atlas of Natural and Agronomic Resources of Niger and Benin" wants to summarise spatial data related to these subjects collected within the successful 15 years lasting Special Research Programme. This Programme "Adapted Farming in West Africa" was funded by the "Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft" (German Research Foundation) and executed by the University of Hohenheim. On the other hand we are aware that not all necessary subjects could be treated by our group. Consequently, we envisage the atlas as a basis for further development incorporating ideas of other scientists.

Creating this atlas means an interactive process in an interdisciplinary team. While creating the internet atlas new visions appeared to create a scientific tool on its basis. An atlas as a print medium tends to be static. Work on the presented data stops as soon as the atlas goes into the printing process. However, the internet offers the opportunity of steady updating from inside or outside of the working group, making the atlas an open and developing tool.

With respect to the validity of the data it has to be considered that most data related to the natural environment have a longer "lifetime" than is true for economics. However these data can be treated in one atlas if regular updating is assured.

In order to act in this vision certain prerequisites have to be fulfilled:

a) Users must have free access to all basic data underlying the maps.

b) Methods and algorithms must be presented.

c) An editorial committee must supervise the updating.

The first two prerequisites lead to a certain structure of the atlas including a comment and a freely accessible database. Prerequisite c needs manpower and led to the decision to search for partners in Niger and Benin which will take over this task, once the atlas is established. Only this close proximity to research in the affected countries can guarantee a sufficient impact. Being aware of the fact, that the internet is not easily accessible to development workers, the atlas will be also published as CD-ROM.

We would like to stimulate all researchers working on spatial agronomic data in Niger and Benin to take part in this exciting experiment in order to contribute to a sound development of these countries.

Yours sincerely

K. Stahr and L. Herrmann